Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Progress

I have made progress on two projects today.Creepy, an Argentinian Ornate Horned Toad or a Pac man frog as pet stores often call them, so called because he tracks you as you go around the room like an old style portrait painting, got his habitat upgraded today.

This is the two and a half gallon aquarium that he was in, mostly because i was to lazy to set up the 10 gal this week. I had picked up a elephant ear variety and an aluminum plant to put in his aquarium at Wal-mart. I am using straight Eco-Earth in his aquarium with some sphagnum moss around the plants for stability, moisture and because it looks nice. On further speculation, I should have put down a layer of gravel to keep some water out of the substrate. Here is a closeup of Creepy half burried in his dirt and an overveiw of his habitat :

In the front is the elephant ear, the middle, is a plant that I dont remember (sorry) and in the back is peacock moss.

I'm hopeing to discover what ratio of plants to water to animals to poop creats the most stable environment. The peacock fern has a very fine root system that should spread as the plant does, once it is established I hope to be able to stop changing the substrate. As it is, I am only changing the substrates about once every 4 or 6 weeks. I pick out poop about twice a week. I feed Creepy 2 or 3 times a week with both small and large crickets, Dusting with ReptoCal each time since he doesnt eat them all at once and the longer they are in the enclosure, the more they will have groomed the dust off of themselves. He is sharing the UVB and A lighting with the bearded dragons that I am baby sitting for a friend.

No independant heat source untill winter, ambient temp is 75-81 degrees at night, I set the A?C to 80 during the day while I'm gone. Since the habitate is in a window with the blinds half closed it gets some direct and indirect sunlight, which also causes the humididty to increase, no exact measure is available, just evidence by the condensation on the inside of he glass. I estimate the interior temp at about 90 in direct sunlight. I will try to actually measure it on my next day off.

About Me

The idea is to log my projects....all of them, and they are many....animal, vegetable, and mineral.
Some are already in motion and other have not yet begun.
The strange part, the obstacle of it all is where it is all located.
I live in a 08' Kingsport Travel Trailer.
And I live with fish, frogs, crabs, a turtle,a snake,a cat, 2 dogs,a spider , and plants and...flies...and poop. Its what I do for a living, clean poop. I work at a pet store, simplifying it down to the extreme...I manage waste, how long it sits, what it consists of, is it proper poop? is it to soft? to hard?... is there to much or to little? Is the person asking me questions worthy or responsible enough to clean this animals poop?
It all revolves around poop in the end. And in a small space....30' by 12' to be exact, poop really matters.